Speech (Health Care) Essay, Research Paper

Topic: Health Care Insurance

General Purpose: To persuade

Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience to believe the United States should have a health care insurance program, which eliminates private health insurance.

Thesis: The United States needs a national health care insurance program because the development of private health care insurance and the lack of a national plan throughout history have lead to a deficiency in proper health care for many Americans.

Introduction:

In the United States costs for health care are being shifted to individuals instead of the government. As professor Allen Jedlicka of UNI states, “The United States is one of the only first world countries that does not have a national health care plan.” The United States needs a national health care insurance program because the development of private health care insurance has lead to a deficiency in proper health care for many Americans. I would like to first tell you why the lack of a national program is a problem, why it became a problem, and then a simple solution for you to do your part in not making it a problem in the future.

I. The first point in my speech is to inform you why making 82% of the United States population get their health care from private health insurance is a problem (Raffel 280). There are three main reasons this causes a problem.

a. The first reason this causes a problem is the cost of private health care insurance.

i. As Marshall Raffel states “The costs to the 18% of the 41 million Americans who do not have health care are outrageous” (270).

1. The cost for emergency room assistance can cost anywhere from $170 for non-urgent care to thousands of dollars for patients who are in serious condition (Thompson).

a. These costs may actually turn people away from getting medical attention.

2. If they want to get their own insurance plan, there are a number of companies they can turn to but this is also very expensive.

3. Visual Aid:

a. Here is one of the quotes for an insurance plan.

b. I picked a person that is 26 years old because it gives us an idea of where we will be soon after college.

i. The person is married with one child.

ii. I took the highest quoted figure for premium payments and got this for their coverage.

1. As you can see they don’t cover everything, and even with your premium, you do still have to make up to a certain amount for individual items.

ii. For people with jobs that have a great health insurance plan, the costs are obviously lower, however, the Health Care Financing Administration has reported that the number of people without health insurance has been increasing by 1 million a year and now there are 41 million Americans without health insurance (”HMO Advocacy ? Costs Down”).

1. Now, if you are thinking, well why should we have a public health care plan- my job will probably pay for all of my health insurance that is actually not true.

a. Today neither employers nor the government are able to assume the financial burden of the soaring costs.

b. 54% of full-time, year-round workers are uninsured

c. 15.8% of part time, year-round employment are uninsured

d. Only 14.5% of the unemployed are uninsured because of programs such as Medicaid that are supplied for low income families (Laham 93).

2. Even though these people have insurance which generally covers 80 to 100% of physician charges, the patient still must pay a deductible which could cost anywhere from $100 up past $5000 and still must pay some of the charges associated with their medication.

b. The second reason it is a problem to have private health care instead of national health care is because the numbers of people without medical attention are also outrageous.

i. The national Center for Health Statistics indicates that the number of helpless children who do not receive proper health care range from 15% to 20% (”America’s Children”)

ii. The national Center for Health Statistics also indicates that the number of adults from 18-64 who do not receive proper health care range from 18% to 20% (”Working-age Adults”)

c. The third reason it is a problem is that the number of retired people need more medical attention than the other two groups and they receive even less than they need.

1. Government health insurance programs, mainly Medicare paid for 55% of nursing home care while residents paid out-of pocket for about 45%.

2. Most nursing home residents deplete their own money within the first year and have to turn to Medicaid which only pays about 5% of nursing home care, leaving our elders without proper care (Raffel 275).

II. The second point in my speech is to show you the reason the United States has private Health Insurance programs and not a National health insurance program because of events, which have occurred in the last 100 years.

a. The first reason for no national plan is based on the history of health care in the United States.

i. In the early 1900’s, the main reason a national health insurance plan was not adopted because the American medical Association did not want one.

1. They did not want one because they would make more money off private insurance because they were able to choose the price they charged with no government intervention.

a. If you have doubts consider this fact:

i. Australia’s physicians made $36,943 in 1989.

ii. Canada’s physicians made about $76,541 5n 1989.

iii. But American doctors’ average net income in 1989 was $132,300, which we all know by now has completely gone up by now (Laham 13-16).

2. Since the AMA had so much money, and so many political votes, they came up with plans, and speeches which convinced the public that private insurance was the way to go, even if the information was not always the entire truth (Laham 26)

ii. In the 1970’s national health insurance was brought up as a huge political issue once again and was turned down once again.

1. It was brought up again because the cost of health care was growing every year.

a. The way the issue was brought about was by the Hospital Cost Containment Act, which was a bill that hospitals would lose a lot of money on.

i. The bill was to only allow people to go to the hospital on the recommendation of their doctor.

ii. The bill was not passed because the republican and democratic parties couldn’t come to an agreement on what a national program should actually involve.

iii. So only 87% of the public was insured.

1. This may sound like a large amount of people but 13% of the population was unable to get any health care, and not all of the 87% get full coverage (Laham 38-86).

iii. Today, the US is facing a severe and rapidly worsening health care crisis. To take care of this, there are two separate views to help solve the crisis.

1. Clinton and the republicans want a plan, which will guarantee everyone to have health care, and no insurance companies can discriminate against people because of health status.

a. He also is trying to make group health insurance affordable for small business.

2. Unlike Clinton, the democrats want to make a national health care program.

a. Doing this will lose them a lot of political votes through organizations such as the AMA and other organizations in the health care industry but if the public will vote for their ideas, we could have a national health insurance bill which promises everyone health care in the United States (Laham163).

b. The second reason for no National health insurance plan was the development of private health insurance.

i. Private health insurance was developed in the 1940s.

ii. The AMA introduced it and Blue Shield was the first provider (Laham 33).

1. The reason the AMA loved it was because private health insurance would allow for no government intervention in which the government could implement barriers on the salaries of health care providers (Laham 33).

iii. Private health insurance was developed because someone could make a profit off of it.

1. Private health care always makes a profit; the companies make certain that they can not handle cost-losing causes (Raffel 298)

a. Does this really sound like a good plan for a nation?

III. The last point in my speech is that in order to ensure everyone in the United States proper health care, a National Health care plan will need to be developed.

a. Almost every first world country has a national health care plan, and if they are able to implement it, why couldn’t we?

i. The answer is that we can!

b. If we implement a national program we will cut government costs as well as the publics costs

i. From Facts on File of 1998 it was shown that the United States spent 224.7 billion dollars on uninsured people and for the elderly.

1. If a national health insurance program is implemented, health costs will be cut because the government will have some say in the prices of hospitals, doctors, and other medical uses.

c. Not only will costs be cut but also the number of people that can receive health care would increase.

i. If a National program is implemented, every citizen will be entitled to health care.

1. So 20% more of the nations children will have proper care as well as 25% more of the nations adults.

d. It would be difficult to implement a program for the United States but it would be a lot easier to get the action started if the public were to vote for a national plan.

i. Now that you know more about Health care it’s pretty simple for you to do your part.

1. When you vote, you can vote for politicians with ideas for health care plans you agree with.

2. If you are ever polled about how you feel about National health care, think about how much simpler, and even how many children and adults you could help out by just making a check mark in the right column of a survey.

In Conclusion it is obvious we need a National Health care plan. Right now, the Health Care Financing Administration has reported that on the average, each American spends $3904 on health insurance. By the year 2007, this amount will about double to $7100 because of the lack of rules governing the price of health care. (”HMO Advocacy?Costs Down.” ). Because of a rapidly expanding uninsured population and the soaring health care costs, it is obvious we definitely have a problem with Health care in the United States. The United States needs a health care program to increase the health of many of the nations’ people. So, in order to prevent the skyrocketing of health care, and to help prevent the sickness of many Americans, you can do your part to try and get a national health care program implemented.

Does anyone have any questions?

“America’s Children.” National Center for Health Statistics. 1999.

“Digest with cumulative Index.” Facts On File Weekly News. 1998.

“HMO Advocacy Groups Say Managed Care Holds Costs Down.” Medical Industry Today 17 Sept. 1998: Payer and Provider News.

Jedlicka, Allen D. UNI. Cedar Falls. 8 March. 2000.

Laham, Nicholas. Why the United States Lacks a National Health Insurance Program. Library of Congress: Praeger Publishers. 1993.

Quotesmith.com, Inc. 2000. Online. Internet. 26 March. 2000. Available http://www.quotesmith.com/cgi/imd3/.

Raffel, Marshall W. Health Care and Reform in Industrialized Countries. Pennsylvania State University: Pennsylvania State University Press. 1997.

Thompson, Karen MacDonald and Glick, Doris F. “Cost Analysis of Emergency Room Use by Low-Income Patients.” Nursing Economics May. 17 (1999): 142.

“Working-age Adults.” National Center for Health Statistics. 1999.

Sources Used:

1 Journal

1 Newsletter

2 Books (2 quotes)

2 Surveys (2 quotes)

1 Web Page

1 Facts on file (1 quote)

1 Professor (1 quote)